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Flourishing in America after a Quarter Millennium

  • Writer: Tyler VanderWeele
    Tyler VanderWeele
  • 4 days ago
  • 9 min read

As America turns 250, we reflect on how work, education, family, communities, and love, can help the nation flourish more fully.


By Tyler J. VanderWeele Ph.D.



Key points


  • America has much to celebrate, but also many opportunities to flourish further

  • Supporting workplaces, education, families, and religious communities helps us flourish.

  • Policy should be oriented towards such flourishing.

  • We will need love and sacrifice for a fuller flourishing in the years ahead and beyond.



Receive Tyler's monthly insight and research updates from the Human Flourishing Program team.



Flourishing in America


On July 4th, America turns 250. There is much to be proud of, and to celebrate. We are an extraordinarily creative and innovative country. We have attained remarkable economic prosperity. We have welcomed and formed a society with people from diverse countries of origin and cultures. Amidst undoubted struggles and imperfections, we have nevertheless successfully lived out our democratic principles now for 250 years. We have been, and in so many ways still are, a country grounded in the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

 

That pursuit of happiness is itself imperfect. Our Global Flourishing Study indicates that we are behind many other countries in the quality of relationships and our sense of meaning. Undoubtedly, there are reasonable critiques of our life today and of our past that need to be addressed. But there is much that is good as well. However, if we hope to see yet more extraordinary development in the next 250 years –if we hope to more fully flourish– it is worthwhile reflecting on where we are at, and what might be done to promote such fuller flourishing.

 

No account can hope to do justice to the extraordinary opportunities and challenges we face as a nation. We need many voices and many perspectives. Here, I would like to offer brief reflections on the promotion of flourishing, grounded in the work and themes of this past decade of the Human Flourishing Program. I will comment on what we have noted previously as prominent “pathways” to flourishing –pathways that are both common and have important effects on flourishing– pathways of work, education, family, and religious community, and I will interweave those reflections with other themes in the Program’s work: on love, on sacrifice, and (after all, this is the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard, devoted to quantitative social science)… on measurement.



Work, Education, Love, and Policy


We are an industrious and innovative nation, and work itself is a critical pathway to flourishing. For many, work supports financial and material needs, gives access to healthcare, can provide a sense of meaning, a forum for relationships, and even opportunities to develop character strengths. Flourishing at work affects flourishing in life. Given the number of hours we spend at work, more could be done in the workplace to support flourishing. We’ve previously made the business case for managers to promote flourishing as this also affects work outcomes, but there is arguably a moral imperative also. Private businesses especially have extraordinary opportunities to support the flourishing of their employees (and customers), and in our conversations with such owners, we’ve seen some incredible demonstrations of this, given the freedom such owners have. Thus even the decision for a company to go public is arguably one with an often unrecognized moral dimension, if pressures to maximize shareholder value prevent the promotion of employee or customer flourishing. But we need models for publicly traded companies to better promote flourishing too. More needs to be done to promote flourishing at work for all, and especially for those disadvantaged, or whose jobs have been displaced, or are threatened by AI.

 

Education might also be better oriented towards flourishing, for schools and universities. Our Flourishing Schools Project and Academic Flourishing Initiative are trying to do precisely that. Central to this are students’ cognitive development and academic attainment, which enable them to flourish both now and in the future. But the scope of education for flourishing should arguably be expanded wherever we have societal consensus to include promoting students’ happiness, health, meaning, character, and relationships, and more can be done to provide resources and equip teachers and educational leaders to carry this out. But the restriction to pursuits around which there is societal consensus seems important, especially within public education. When education becomes overly politicized, there is inevitable pushback, and withdrawals from, or fights over, our public institutions.

 

If America is to flourish, we must work together. The increasing political polarization of our society is a concern. We must listen to one another, understand our agreements and disagreements, and seek consensus wherever we are able, and then allow our democratic system to help resolve our disputes. Regardless of legislative and electoral outcomes, we must better recognize the value, dignity, and personhood of everyone, even of those with whom we disagree. What we need is arguably a greater love– a love of neighbor, and even love of enemy, including forgiveness, and also seeking the good of and for others. That love itself is key to our flourishing.

 

American society would do well to measure flourishing more systematically. What we measure shapes what we discuss, what we know, what we aim for, and policies put in place to achieve those aims. We need to measure flourishing nationally to understand what is going well and what is not; who needs help and in what ways; and how things are changing over time. Flourishing measures could be embedded, for example, in the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey or possibly even through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid as a Patient-Reported Outcome Measure (PROM). We need better data on flourishing and community wellbeing if we are to support it. We are trying to do our part at the Program and are initiating a new State of the Nation Flourishing Report through NORC, starting in 2027, reporting annually on flourishing and on love of neighbor and enemy in the United States.


Sacrifice, Family, Religion, and Transcendence


If America is to flourish, we also each need to be willing to make sacrifices for the good of others. That orientation to the good of others often positively affects our own flourishing. But sometimes we may experience real losses in helping others– sometimes we must suffer and sacrifice, which sometimes also leads to growth. America has, in various ways, been built from those willing to sacrifice for the common good. We’ve previously defined flourishing as “a state in which all aspects of a person’s life are good, including the contexts in which that person lived.” Thus, the community’s well-being, and the sacrifices one makes for it, are a part of one’s own flourishing.

 

Relatedly, if America is to flourish, we must invest more in future generations. Young people’s well-being is comparatively low. We need to do more to support the well-being of younger generations. We need loving families and strong marriages. We also need to actually have children. Birthrates in the United States –and indeed, in most of the rest of the world– have fallen dramatically and are below the replacement rate. There will be no future flourishing if there are not future generations. And if each generation is progressively smaller, this too will create a host of problems for the flourishing of society. We need policies that support families, marriages, and children. We need to celebrate children, and parenthood, and perhaps especially mothers, whose work in so many ways paves the way for future flourishing.

 

For true flourishing we must also seek what is beyond ourselves. We must seek the good of others; we must seek beauty, truth, and goodness; we must seek ultimate meaning; we must seek the transcendent. Much of our research has made evident the important effects of religious communities on flourishing–longevity, mental health outcomes, relationships, and so many other aspects of well-being. But these religious communities are aiming not just at flourishing in this life but at what lies beyond– a union with the divine or transcendent. These forms of flourishing are interrelated. The Declaration of Independence grounds the “unalienable Rights [of] Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” in their having been “endowed by their Creator.” In the Christian understanding, we love God in part by our love of neighbor. America is a pluralistic society, with many faith communities seeking, as best they can, that transcendence. If America is to flourish, we must continue to uphold religious liberty for all, to ensure the pursuit of what is most important.


Gratitude and Flourishing


At 250, we have much to work on in America, but also much to celebrate. Gratitude– that recognition and appreciation of what is good– is central to our flourishing. And so, at this important milestone in the life of our nation, let us together be grateful for all that is good, and for the remaining opportunities we each have to make things better. We are grateful for all of you and your partnership in promoting flourishing, and for all who support America’s flourishing, now and into the future.




Receive Tyler's monthly insight and research updates from the Human Flourishing Program team.



References


Flourishing

 

VanderWeele, T.J. (2017). On the promotion of human flourishing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 31:8148-8156.

 

Lomas, T., Pawelski, J.O., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2024). Flourishing as “sustainable well-being”: balance and harmony within and across people, ecosystems, and time. Journal of Positive Psychology, 20:203–218.

 

VanderWeele, T. J., Johnson, B. et al., (2025). The Global Flourishing Study: study profile and initial results on flourishing. Nature Mental Health, 3:636-653.

 

 

Work

 

Weziak-Bialowolska, D., Bialowolski, P., Sacco, P.L., VanderWeele, T.J., and McNeely, E. (2020). Well-being in life and well-being at work: which comes first? Evidence from a longitudinal study. Frontiers in Public Health, 8:103.

 

Fung, E.N., Cowden, R.G., Chen, Y., Weziak-Bialowolska, D., Bialowolski, P., Lee, M.T., McNeely, E. and VanderWeele, T.J. (2024). Prospective associations of multidimensional well-being with work distraction and job satisfaction: a two-wave study of US employees. Frontiers in Psychology, section Organizational Psychology, 15, 1326655.

 

Weziak-Bialowolska, D., Lee, M.T., Cowden, R.G., Bialowolski, P., Chen, Y., VanderWeele, T.J., and McNeely, E. (2023). Psychological caring climate at work, mental health, well-being, and work-related outcomes: Evidence from a longitudinal study and health insurance data. Social Science & Medicine, 323:115841.

 

 

Education

 

Kristjánsson, K. and VanderWeele, T.J. (2025). The proper scope of education for flourishing. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 59:634-650.

 

VanderWeele, T.J. and Hinton, C. (2024). Metrics for education for flourishing: A framework. International Journal of Wellbeing, 14, Article 3197: 1-35.

 

VanderWeele, T.J. and Case, B.W. (2025). Academic flourishing and student formation. International Journal of Wellbeing, 15(2):5003.

 

 

 

Love

 

VanderWeele, T.J. and Lee, M.T. (2025). Love and human flourishing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 15:4663.

 

VanderWeele, T. J., Padgett, R., Case, B., Cowden, R., Hanson, J., Hinton, C., Kurniati, N.M.T., Lomas, T., Long, K., Niemiec, R., Bechara, A.O., Rutledge, J.C., Teubner, J., Town, S., Wilkinson, R. and Lee, M.T. (2026). Love of neighbor assessment: validity, reliability, and a template for measurement. Frontiers in Psychology, 16:1575175.


VanderWeele, T.J. (2023). On an analytic definition of love. Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, 25:105-135.

 

 

Measurement

 

VanderWeele, T. J., and Johnson, B.R. (2025). Why we need to measure wellbeing—lessons from a global survey. Nature, 641:34-36.

 

Lee, M., Kubzansky, L.D., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2021). Measuring Well-Being: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the Social Sciences and the Humanities. Oxford University Press.

 

VanderWeele, T.J. (2019). Measures of community well-being: a template. International Journal of Community Well-Being, 2:253-275.

 

Chen, Y., Cowden, R.G., Fulks, J., Plake, J.K., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2022). National data on age gradients in wellbeing among U.S. adults. JAMA Psychiatry, 79:1046-1047.

 

 

Sacrifice and Suffering

 

VanderWeele, T.J., Cowden, R.G., Kelly, P., and Peteet, J.R. (2023). The need for the scientific study of the transformation of suffering. International Journal of Existential Positive Psychology, 12(1).

 

VanderWeele, T.J. (2019). Suffering and response: directions in empirical research. Social Science and Medicine, 224:58-66.


 Węziak-Białowolska, D., Białowolski, P., VanderWeele, T.J., and McNeely, E. (2021). Character strengths involving an orientation to promote good can help your health and well-being. Evidence from two longitudinal studies. American Journal of Health Promotion, 35:388-398.

 

 

Family and Marriage

 

Chen, Y., Haines, J. Charlton, B., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2019). Positive parenting improves multiple aspects of health and well-being in young adulthood. Nature Human Behavior, 3:684-691.

 

Chen, Y. Kubzansky, L., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2019). Parental warmth and flourishing in mid-life. Social Science and Medicine, 220:65-72.

 

 

Case, B., Corbin, I.M., Ivey, R., Teubner, J., Cowden, R., Bachiochi, E., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2025). Reconnecting our communities: social flourishing on the far side of “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation". International Journal of Wellbeing, 15:4839.

 

 

Religious Community

 

Chen, Y., Kim, E.S., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2020). Religious service attendance and subsequent health and well-being throughout adulthood: evidence from three prospective cohorts. International Journal of Epidemiology, 49:2030–2040.

 

VanderWeele, T.J. and Ouyang, S.T. (2025). Religion and mental health: Is the relationship causal? Journal of Religion and Health, 64:1890-1897.

 

Balboni, T.A., VanderWeele, T.J., Doan-Soares, S.D., Long, K.N.G., Ferrell, B., Fitchett, G., Koenig, H.G., Bain, P., Puchalski, C., Steinhauser, K.E., Sulmasy, D.P., and Koh, H.K. (2022). Spirituality in Serious Illness and Health. JAMA, 328:184-197.

 

VanderWeele, T.J. (2024). A Theology of Health: Wholness and Human Flourishing. University of Notre Dame Press. Notre Dame, IN.

 

Long, K.N.G., Nakamura, J.S., Long, P.M., Gregg, R.J., Abraham, F., Counted, V., Johnson, B.R., and VanderWeele, T.J. (2025). Flourishing communities: The role of faith communities in the promotion of flourishing and the common good. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 44:84-107.

 
 
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